Tripura MP Decries BJP Govts’ Attempts To Pull Away Tribal Lands

MP from Tripura Jitendra Chowdhury lambasted the BJP for giving away thousands of acres of Adivasi lands in the States under its rule to corporate companies by throwing the Adivasis out of the lands they have been cultivating for decades.

Jitendra Chaudhury

Visakhapatnam: Member of Parliament from Tripura and treasurer of the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch Jitendra Chaudhury alleged that the BJP governments in various States were making attempts to give away forest lands to corporate companies. Speaking to the media on Thursday in Visakhapatnam, he said Adivasis were being alienated from their own lands. As many as 7,000 acres of land was taken away from them so far. The BJP-ruled governments in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh declared war against the Adivasi communities, he maintained. He was here to take part in the three-day national conference of the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch.

Tripura remained a model for others in implementing forest rights and extending education and health facilities to Adivasis, Jitendra Chaudhury claimed. Adivasis were provided with land rights on forest lands. About 98 percent of applications from Adivasis for forest rights were settled by the government, he stated adding that no single application was cleared by the BJP governments. Tribal Areas Autonomous District Councils in the State played a commendable role in achieving 99 percent literacy in the State. Attacks on Adivasi culture is on the increase recently and an action plan against those attempts would be devised at the national conference, he said.

Former MP Midiyam Baburao criticised the State government for not showing an iota of interest in alternative designs for Polavaram project whose construction would submerge scores of Adivasi villages and forest lands. The State government’s decision to remove 1400 teachers of Adivasi language would badly hit the protection of their language. He observed education for Adivasis was impossible unless the governments give primacy to the Adivasi languages.